Controversy Unfolds: EVM Unlocking’ Debate in Mumbai North West

During the final rounds of counting, the contest between Waikar and Kirtikar was extremely tight. Initially, Kirtikar was declared the winner by 2,200 votes, leading Waikar to request a recount. After recounting, Kirtikar was ahead by one vote, but this included only the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) rounds. The postal ballots were then counted, with 111 votes declared invalid. Ultimately, the returning officer, Vandana Suryavanshi, announced that Waikar received 4,52,644 votes, while Kirtikar received 4,52,596 votes, marking a narrow margin of 48 votes. Shiv Sena (UBT) has since questioned the counting process’s validity and intends to challenge the result in court.

Shiv Sena (UBT) suspects manipulation and illegality in the counting process. Kirtikar has expressed concerns about possible EVM tampering and has demanded CCTV footage from the counting center to substantiate their claims, drawing parallels to the Chandigarh mayor elections in February, where ballot paper tampering was caught on camera.

The controversy escalated last week with allegations that Waikar’s relative, Mangesh Pandilkar, used a mobile phone at the counting center in NESCO, Goregaon East, to access an EVM, which is illegal. Independent candidates Bharat Shah and Surinder Mohan Arora alerted the election commission after noticing Pandilkar using the phone. The police have registered an FIR against both Gurav and Pandilkar. Reports suggest Pandilkar used the mobile to generate an OTP to unlock the EVM.

At a press conference on Sunday, Suryavanshi dismissed claims of EVM hacking, clarifying that Gurav’s phone could only access the election commission’s ENCORE application, used for digitizing votes and data tabulation. She emphasized that EVMs cannot be unlocked using an OTP.

Vote counting involves several steps: postal ballots are counted first, followed by EVM rounds. The EVM’s control unit displays the total votes polled and the results for each candidate. This process can be repeated if requested by any counting agent. Rejected postal ballots are re-verified if the victory margin is less than the number of rejected ballots before the final result declaration.

Shiv Sena (UBT) has raised several issues regarding the counting process. Anil Parab, a Shiv Sena (UBT) leader, has outlined seven claims, including a lack of transparency, failure to provide Form 17C to representatives, discrepancies in vote tallies, and delays in providing CCTV footage.

In response, Chief Minister Shinde has dismissed the EVM tampering allegations, accusing the Uddhav Thackeray camp of jealousy over Waikar’s victory. Shinde’s camp has demanded apologies from Aaditya Thackeray and Rahul Gandhi for spreading misinformation about the alleged EVM unlocking with an OTP and called for media organizations to retract their reports on the issue.